Farah’s Pusht Rod District Under Armed Taliban Siege

MEP: The provincial council of Farah has said the security situation in some districts of the province is deteriorated and claims the district of Pusht Rod has been surrounded by the armed Taliban.

However, local officials believe the claim is unfounded.

Farid Bakhtawar, head of the Farah provincial council in dialogue with the Middle East Press said the district is currently under siege.

While stressing that the security situation is not conducive in the province, he added that local officials have no plans to fix security problems.

Bakhtawar reiterated the armed Taliban in the district, and about 15 kilometers from the city of Farah are active and the district is under the Taliban’s siege since 25 days and the provincial capital of the district has been repeatedly targeted by rockets.

But the provincial governor’s spokesman strongly denied the allegations and says the armed Taliban are present only in remote parts of the district.

Nasser Mehri told the Middle East Press security forces are conducting operations in the district and other areas where the Taliban are active.

Regarding the security situation in Farah province, Mehri said “the situation is better than before, Taliban’s rally in the district is also targeted by security forces and good security achievements have been obtained.”

Meanwhile, Bakhtawar said that security forces are not even able to provide security in Farah – Farah route where the opposition groups are freely commuting.

According to him, the armed Taliban have taken a large number of civilians and security forces through this route and are still in captivity.

But Mehri says the situation is currently normal on the route and there is not much difficulty in this direction.

Displaced people and contradictory statements

Farah provincial council claims that war and Taliban presence in a number of districts, have caused a large number of families displaced.

Bakhtawar noted only two thousand families have come to Farah city from Pusht Rod district and live with many problems.

According to him, local authorities, particularly the governor of Farah, monopolizes the press media and therefore the main problem is not transferred to the media clearly.

But Mehri, a spokesman for the governor of Farah by rejecting this claim says, in the past a number of families were displaced due to the war, but after the operation and funding of the raw material of life, were transferred back to their places of origin.